Obama to award arts, humanities medals to 2 dozen

WASHINGTON (AP) — Musician Herb Alpert, sportswriter Frank Deford and filmmaker George Lucas are among 23 people and an organization chosen to receive national medals for their contributions in the fields of the arts and humanities.

President Barack Obama will award the medals next Wednesday during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

Playwright Tony Kushner, musician Renee Fleming and the Washington Performing Arts Society have also been selected to receive a National Medal of Arts.

Other recipients of the National Humanities Medal include author Joan Didion and actress Anna Deavere Smith, along with Kay Ryan, a former poet laureate of the U.S., and Robert B. Silvers, editor and co-founder of The New York Review of Books.